The Books of Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn
(in English)

Somewhere along the line, I acquired a copy of Leftism Revisited. Then, around 1990, I wrote to the looking-for-books column of the Conservative Book Club, asking if anyone knew where I could find a copy of his earlier title Liberty or Equality. I was very kindly contacted by someone at Christendom Press, who told me they were preparing a Fortieth Anniversary edition of Liberty or Equality. I said "Sign me up!"

Since then, through the indulgence of my lovely bride and with the help of a friend or two, I have, so far as I know, copies of all of K-L's English-language books.

(I have not, however, acquired everything K-L published in English. He was most prolific, and I don't know if there's even a listing of everything he published in more than sixty years of active writing in many different languages. In my mad dreamland, someone will publish all of K-L's National Review columns in one collection. I'm not holding my breath for that, however, and in the meantime am making use of FindArticles.com.)

My Collection

None of the K-L books I own are priceless first editions or anything like that, though one or two of them do have elements of interest to them. To answer one potential question: No, none of these are for sale — at least, not without some extravagant offer on your part. If you're making an extravagant offer, e-mail me.

Autographed presentation card from Liberty or Equality

The autographed presentation card in my copy of Liberty or Equality.

Nonfiction

  • The Menace of the Herd, or Procrustes at Large (Bruce Publishing Co., Milwaukee, 1943). My review on Amazon.com.
  • Liberty or Equality: The Challenge of Our Time (Hollis & Carter, London, 1952).
  • The Timeless Christian (Franciscan Herald Press, Chicago, 1969). My review.
  • Leftism: From de Sade and Marx to Hitler and Marcuse (Arlington House, New Rochelle, NY, 1974).
  • The Intelligent American's Guide to Europe (Arlington House, 1979). My review.
  • Leftism Revisited: From de Sade and Marx to Hitler and Pol Pot (Regnery Gateway, Washington, D.C., 1990).
  • Liberty or Equality: The Challenge of Our Time (Fortieth Anniversary Edition) (Christendom Press, Front Royal, VA, 1993).

Novels

  • The Gates of Hell: An Historical Novel of the Present Day (Sheed & Ward, London, 1933). My review.
  • Night Over the East (Sheed & Ward, 1936). My review.
  • Moscow 1979 (Sheed & Ward, 1946).
  • Black Banners (Caxton Printers, Caldwell, ID, 1954). My review.

A Note About Names

If you're searching for K-L books on eBay or booksellers' web sites, be sure to check various permutations of the author's name. For example, The Gates of Hell and other early titles are credited to Erik R. (or Erik Maria Ritter) von Kühnelt-Leddihn, whereas later works generally have the more familiar Kuehnelt spelling. His wife Christiane is listed as co-author on Moscow 1979. Finally, The Menace of the Herd was published under the pseudonym "Francis Stuart Campbell."

Other Places to Find Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

As I noted above, K-L published a lot of magazine articles, some of which turn up from time to time in collections on eBay or are available through interlibrary loan (that's how I was able to find this article from a magazine published by Fordham University).

The Ludwig von Mises Institute has republished three of K-L's books in print or digital editions: Liberty or Equality, The Menace of the Herd, and Leftism. These are available in their store. All of these, as well as his great article "Monarchy and War," are also avaiable for free download in the Mises Institute's literature archive.

A very kind visitor to this site from Sweden pointed out to me that a number of Kuehnelt-Leddihn's lectures are available on the website of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. I'm not a member of the ISI so I can't confirm, but if you are, happy hunting. (The same correspondent also mentioned that one of K-L's German-language books was recently republished. I'm very glad to hear there is still a market for his work in his mother tongue!)

A number of articles K-L published in The Freeman can be found on the webpage of the Foundation for Economic Education. I got the best results from just entering "Kuehnelt" in the searchbox on the top of the page.

And finally, as I noted above, K-L's National Review articles were for a time available for free on FindArticles.com. They don't seem to be there at the moment, but perhaps this will change? Nevertheless, a hearty thank-you for this tip goes to the mighty Wilson Revolution Unplugged blog, run by someone who admires K-L as much as I do.

If you read The Menace of the Herd, I strongly encourage you to find a copy of "The Roots of 'Anticapitalism,'" where he addresses some of the same issues 30 years on. This is one of the articles that was for a time available through FindArticles.com. It's a fascinating comparison of how his ideas changed and developed over time.